


stardust, lady stardust

by SeveralUniversesCombined



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: 1970s, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, First Meeting, Fluff, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Season 2 Speculation, just yearning lesbians, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:35:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25446229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeveralUniversesCombined/pseuds/SeveralUniversesCombined
Summary: Amidst the heat and sunlight of 1970s Dallas, inside her little beetle of a car, Vanya meets a stranger.
Relationships: Vanya Hargreeves/Sissy
Comments: 9
Kudos: 111





	stardust, lady stardust

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: i wrote this before season 2 came out, so sorry if Sissy's personality turns out to be completely different from canon. unfortunately i am a yearning sapphic, and i couldn't wait for s2  
> second disclaimer: i know sissy has a child but i don't know his age so i just defaulted to 5, once again sorry if that's different from whatever canon's gonna be

A sunbeam was dancing upon Vanya’s steering wheel. 

Not that it’s unusual for sunlight to exist. The sun was a certainty; at 6 am it would strain itself out from the horizon, and at 6 pm it would steadily return back to slumber. Rising up, rising down. Empty or whole, with no messy in-betweens or stumbling gradients.

A deal that Vanya preferred much more than whatever the moon had given her.

The sunbeam fluttered in the corner of her vision, framing her view of the road ahead. By now, Vanya had memorized this sight- glittering black asphalt holding up the grumbling cars above it, shop store windows gleaming beside the road, everything shimmering _bright._

Dallas was slathered in burning heat and searing light. It was in these moments, gripping a strange steering wheel and feeling yellow sun bite her cheeks, that Vanya missed the shade her life had once provided.

She never ached for long, however. Her memories were so carefully wrapped up, under layers of pounding guilt and fragile fury; a wish for silence was not worth bringing up an irrelevant pain.

Oh, she had tried to fix her dilemma for the first few weeks. Searching across Dallas in a frenzy, hands quivering, all sorts of cries and apologies _right_ on her tongue that only belonged to five people in existence. 

Vanya did not search for long until her sour, sour fury returned.

So no apologies were thought about since then. Some drafts of hypothetical speech stayed curled up in the corners of her brain, but very few broke through the feeling of senseless loneliness, fists throbbing from pounding on steel doors as pleas and screams breathed and died in the air around her.

Only one of her drafts still pulsed in her head, but Vanya could barely think the first word before a wave of guilt hollowed her into a sun-bleached bone. _She_ deserved better than any of the clumsy apologies she could give _her_. 

Allison deserved-

The _screech_ of the car crowed ungracefully as Vanya floored the brake. A red light glowed in front of her, a ghastly neon blending into pirouetting heat waves. Honks started to thunder across the road, with a few being unimpressed by the volume of their cars and hollering their objections instead.

“Oh, _shit,”_ Vanya whispered to herself, squeezing her eyes shut. Why, why, _why_ did she decide the money was worth being a _taxi driver._

She backed up her car the best she could, tucking her head farther between her shoulders in the meanwhile. Driving hadn’t been her first option, but then again, there are only so many options available to someone who had been plucked from her time and dropped into 1960s Dallas like a bar of soap in the shower. 

Thus, here she was; driving the cheapest car she could find. Living in the smallest one room apartment, crawling her way across the Dallas streets with a little worn-out yellow sign atop her car. Vanya was almost thankful for the suffocating heat wrapping around herself- that was something _else_ to feel miserable about, something that didn’t come back to regrets smelling of moonlight and concertos.

Vanya drove along once the red had switched to green, eyeing the streets for any passerby in need of a ride. She squinted against the glow of white-painted buildings and blinding store windows, trying to at least pretend she was interested in fulfilling her job.

She stopped squinting.

Against a harsh line of light from a window pane was a woman. Vanya couldn’t make out her face, but she was holding a thumb up high in the air, like a shaky lighthouse against the sea of people on the sidewalks. People ebbed and flowed around her, but the top of her light, golden hair remained.

Her fingers were already turning the steering wheel, sliding the Beetle next to the sidewalk where the woman stood.

Vanya saw her face just as the woman’s saw hers; a face that shone with smiling relief, haloed by hair turned golden from the sun. Still, there was worry etched into her face as she ran up to the window, hands already digging for a wallet before her mouth even opened.

“Thank _goodness-_ I thought I’d have to wait here all day!” she began, words coated in a southern drawl. “I’m- oh, I’m so late as it is- miss, could you drive me out on the other side of town? Down Forest Lane, there’s a daycare, could you take me there? As quick as you can?”

Vanya blinked, hesitantly motioning towards the back. Her voice felt so much quieter compared to the strong beat of the lady’s tone. “Yeah, uh- yes, of course, I can take you there, just.. Get in the back, and give me directions as I go.”

The woman breathed a sigh of relief, tapping Vanya’s unrolled window with her fingers. “Oh, _thank you darling,_ just a pure life saver,” she said, sitting down in the back of the Beetle. She missed no beats in fishing out two dollars to hand to Vanya, who struggled to match the speed of the woman's movements.

Vanya’s gaze drifted back to the woman once she was on the road, watching her reflection in the rearview mirror. She noticed her straight posture, blue-grey eyes watching herself in the car window as she brushed curled strands behind her ear. The hints of a relieved smile were still on her face, painted in the hues of warm sunlight streaked across her face.

If the day was bright, then this woman was simply warm. Vanya found herself relaxing quite quickly, until she began to speak again.

“Oh, pardon my manners, miss- haven’t even asked for a name. What should I call you?”

“It’s Vanya,” she replied, her hands gripping the wheel tighter while her gaze fluttered back and forth. A tight, awkward smile spread across her face, but the woman seemed to be happy with the response.

“Vanya! That’s- ooh, that’s Russian, isn’t it?” She laughed. “Bet you get grief about being a communist all the time.”

“I, well-” Vanya cut herself off with a laugh of her own, a small little thing that could barely qualify as one. “No, uh, luckily I do not.”

The woman nodded. “Mmm. Pretty name, though.”

Vanya finally met the woman’s eyes in the mirror, seeing her bright, still frenzied, yet _warm_ expression. Despite Vanya’s stumbling conversation, she leaned forward in interest, satisfied in waiting for Vanya’s shy replies. 

She didn’t smile, but nonetheless Vanya felt the corners of her mouth twitch. “Thank you, miss uhh.. Sorry, I don’t know what to call you, I haven’t caught your name.”

“Oh, it’s Sissy,” she said, leaning back against the seat as she watched Vanya, hands folded in her lap. “You know- your regular ol’ Texan name. Can tell I’m Dallas born and raised just from that.”

Vanya could hear the grin in her voice, which was a voice she found herself taking a liking to. 

“I’d say it’s just as pretty as Vanya,” she said, and looked to see Sissy smile just a little wider. Her cheeks were tinted pink- probably from the heat of the car.

“You’ve got good taste, Vanya,” Sissy called out, breaking another pause of silence. She said it in such a cordial, joking way- Vanya felt guilty to find her gut reaction was to tense up, grow white knuckles and curl herself away, away from the world.

“God, I wish,” Vanya mumbled, thinking her voice was too quiet to hear. She only realized she’d been wrong when Sissy’s grin shortened. 

This time, the silence felt crooked and messy. Vanya found herself picking up the loose strings again.

“Sorry for.. Bringing down the mood like that,” she began, but Sissy was quick to overtake her.

“No, miss, don’t apologize!” Sissy waved her hand off, resting a hand next to Vanya’s headrest. “God knows we’ve all had bad men- is it a man?”

Vanya didn’t answer.

“Yeah… a man sure does it. It ain’t your fault, mind you- men are _bastards._ ”

Sissy leaned on her hand, staring out the car window. Vanya did not have to look at her to find an unearthed bitterness on Sissy’s face- that same bitterness was boiling within her own heart.

The drive continued in silence, with Vanya driving through the crowded streets, the chatter of outside cars and people filling their empty conversation. 

“I know it’s a bit bold of me to say, but you’re a quiet one, ain’t ya Vanya?”

This pulled out a humorless chuckle from Vanya. “Sorry to disappoint.”

“Naw, no disappointment from me. I could probably learn a thing or two from bein’ that quiet- maybe I wouldn’t have called Alice down the door a grueler for letting her kid bully my Benjamin.”

“Oh?” Inexplicably, Vanya found herself turning her head around at Sissy, feeling drawn to the words, the promise of a story. Usually, Vanya didn’t care for the stories of strangers, but today… She could use a voice dipped in the warm honey of a southern drawl to dim the brightness of the streets.

“Oh _yeah,_ here’s the lowdown-”

Sissy launched into her story as Vanya drove, providing a backdrop of words to listen to. The air seemed cooler as Sissy spoke, making Vanya’s heart relax and forget the crackling heat around them. Sunlight dimmed in her vision, lights blinking less harshly under a softer backdrop of sunlight and shiny cars. She could notice the shadows that framed the roads and sidewalks, the finer details of lighting cracks in the pavement and people bustling about.

The world did not burn under harsh lights- rather it was illuminated. A peaceful, ethereal glow that screamed, _I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive._

At this point, Vanya was barely listening to Sissy’s story, preferring to listen to the shape of her words than the meaning of them. Eventually, however, she had to hear this:

“There! That’s my stop, if you could just park right over there- yeah.”

Vanya complied, backing up into a parallel park in front of a daycare. There was a washed-out rainbow behind the window, colors bleached from age and sun, with pictures of crayon scribblings hung up proudly for any passerby to see.

Not perfect, not great, not _extraordinary._ Just the clumsy imagination of children messily translated to reality, deemed as special by its sheer existence.

The sound of the car door snapped Vanya out of it.

Sissy stepped out, regaining all her anxious energy from earlier. No hesitation marked her movements once she was out of the car, and she could barely tear away her stare at the daycare to glance at Vanya.

“Alright, I know how this sounds, but could you please _please_ wait here? I promise I’ll be back with the money, I just gotta grab my kid, okay?”

Usually, this was the biggest red flag that Vanya could get on the job. Looking into Sissy’s earnest eyes, biting her nails in terrible worry- this was no ordinary circumstance.

“No, please, go ahead- uh, you’re not drunk so you’re up by ten points in believability.”

Sissy gave a ringing laugh- a fierce, bubbly thing that was unapologetically _loud._ Vanya was sure that passerby's could hear her, but who would complain about such a joyful thing?

It only took a minute or so for Sissy to run in and out, the only difference being that she had a little boy in tow. He stared back at Vanya with big blue eyes, blinking non-stop while he gripped his mother’s hand.

Vanya smiled and waved. The boy gave an attempt at his own wave, with a shyness to his movements that felt familiar. Her smile broadened anyway.

“Okay, so here’s what I owe, plus tip…” Sissy counted the bills in her hand, until she held out a crisp 15 dollars

Vanya could only stare. The objections fell out of her mouth quite fast after that.

“No, no- I can’t take this, ma’am, just the two dollars is fine-”

“Nope! You deserve it for gettin’ me here so quick, I know you cab drivers have a hard time-”

“I can’t, you have a child, please Sissy, I don’t need it-”

Sissy’s hands clasped Vanya’s, cutting her words off as she placed the bills in her hand herself. Her fingers curled around Vanya’s, closing Vanya’s palm on the money. Her skin was rough yet warm, calloused bumps sliding over her own tiny hands. Yet, her touch was soft enough that Vanya could break away at any moment and refuse.

Vanya did not.

“Don’t you go about worryin’ about me, miss Vanya,” Sissy said, tone softer than before. Her face had a sternness, framed in a butterfly-light kindness that Vanya felt could shatter if she moved.

Finally, Vanya nodded- a tiny nod, followed by something bigger. “I- I can’t thank you enough, Sissy, I…”

She expected Sissy to cut her off, to rip away her grip from Vanya’s hand, but she stayed silent and patient. Vanya swore she could feel a squeeze of encouragement.

“... just. Thank you.”

“No need for thanks. Go buy yourself somethin’ nice, maybe some of those little nesting dolls, fund those secret communist contacts you’ve got.”

Vanya felt a laugh burst from her throat- falling from her lips like a shaky song, shaking her shoulders and tossing her head to the side. When she opened her eyes, Vanya could see Sissy’s expression had changed. Her eyes were wider, a smile sprinkled with surprise.

There was something else on her face as well- something Vanya couldn’t recognize.

“Did I, was- something-”

“No, _naw,_ you’re good. Real good.” Sissy sighed, and her signature grin returned to her face. The boy tugged on her dress, which finally made Sissy pull away her gaze.

“Oh, what is it, Benny?”

His word was barely a whisper. “Home.”

“Mm. Yeah.”

A few silent seconds stretched by, as Sissy’s gaze was lost, and Vanya stared at a stray eyelash that had fluttered on her cheek. Their hands did not separate.

It was only when Sissy gave a cough, and pulled her fingers away that Vanya comprehended the moment was over.

“Well, thank you for the ride,,” she said, nodding out a goodbye.

A breeze flowed across Vanya’s hand, making her purse her lips as she nodded back. “Yeah, it was- it was nice to have you, uhm, you know my car now, if you ever need another ride.”

Sissy patted the car smugly. “Oh, you betcha I’ll be needin’ a ride. We’ll be seein’ each other again, Vanya, real soon.”

With one, final knock against the metal, Sissy turned around to walk away, taking her son’s hand in hers as they went off to walk across the sidewalk.

Vanya stayed still for a while, simply watching the scene unfold. Sissy’s hair was turning golden in the late sun, just as her face seemed to glow from the light cast upon it. Her tall figure receded like a distant star, growing smaller and farther, dimmer as she faded into the constellation of the crowd.

Once her light had completely vanished, Vanya looked down at her hand- still clutching the money given to her. She could still remember the clammy warmth it had been enclosed in, the care her fingers had been enveloped in.

As another sunbeam began to dance on her steering wheel, Vanya smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> title is from "lady stardust" by lisa miskovsky
> 
> thanks for checking my first fic out and reading! have a good day, y'all <3


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